One of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons is season six’s “Sideshow Bob Roberts,” in which Robert Underdunk Terwilliger Jr. is elected the mayor of Springfield, thanks to some illegal help from Edgar Neubauer and other deceased residents of the town. Just listing quotes and references from the episode make me laugh: Only Turkeys Have Left Wings, “spendocrat,” “smellfare program,” “Yes, ma’am. Sideshow Bob, yakking it up on the old yak box,” “Well, despite, Bart’s objections, the people of South Africa can now vote in free democratic elections,” and, of course, “the next mayor of Springfield,” a bubbling water cooler. *golf clap*
“Bob Roberts” is sharp, smart, cruel to both liberals and conservatives, and uproariously funny, all things that the overly obvious video below, in which Mr. Burns endorses Mitt Romney for president, with some help from Seamus, is not. Still love you, Simpsons, and I’ll even defend recent episodes of the show (watch last season’s “The Book Job”), but please, no more politics. Or episodes about Lady Gaga. Or Moe as a demon who has kinky sex with Homer in a Paranormal Activity parody (that happened). In other words, I’m going to watch “Bob Roberts” for the 86th time, and pretend the last decade didn’t happen. And that’s the TOOTH (eh, close enough).
BONUS CLIP!
